One Song, Many Free Uses

Thu, 19 Mar 2026 08:45:00 +0100

Read our Substack blogpost

Livonian is a critically endangered European language related to Estonian, Finnish, and Hungarian. A small community of Livonians are re-learning their ancestral language, and singing together is one of the most effective ways to practice.
For the first time, we made a recording of a Livonian dance song accessible on Spotify, Apple Music, and Amazon. These platforms make the song available in almost every country, and some—like Spotify—offer it for free if you are willing to listen to advertisements. Continue reading on Substack…

Unlabel

Sat, 29 Apr 2023 10:00:00 +0000

Unlabel is a concept and pilot developed within the Open Music Europe framework that explores how under-documented, culturally valuable music can be made visible, usable, and distributable in the digital ecosystem. It addresses a structural problem identified across European music systems: large volumes of repertoire remain “invisible” because rights, metadata, and attribution are incomplete or inconsistent .

The project builds on policy and technical work around interoperable copyright data and metadata governance, particularly the need for machine-readable, trustworthy identifiers and rights information across the lifecycle of musical works and recordings . Instead of attempting full reconstruction at source, Unlabel focuses on pragmatic repair and enrichment of legacy data, enabling works to re-enter circulation.

Developed in collaboration with the Swedish distributor Aloaded, Unlabel tests how improved metadata, identifier alignment, and lightweight rights modelling can unlock dormant catalogues for distribution platforms and AI-ready environments. It operates at the intersection of archives, collective management, and digital distribution.

For me, Unlabel represents a shift from analysis to implementation: a concrete attempt to demonstrate that better data governance is not only a policy objective, but a practical pathway to cultural reuse, market access, and long-term preservation.

livs | Daniel Antal

One Song, Many Free Uses

Unlabel